It's finally here! Year 2000 has arrived, with few problems, thank goodness!  None of the myriad of glitches we'd been warned to expect have appeared so far, and the world seems to have celebrated the beginning of the new century in relative peace and happiness.  Shortly before midnight we scooted up to one of the roof-top terraces at La Mision, where we are staying this winter in Mazatlan, to watch the fireworks display and cheer on the New Year, the New Century, the New  Millenium!

We are keeping ourselves quite nicely busy doing all the things we've always wanted to do here in Mazatlan, but never had time when our trips were limited to a week or so.  Learning Spanish is a major goal, and we are doing what we can to pick up words whenever we're around someone who is willing to help the gringo and gringa with their pronunciation.  We have also begun lessons of 2-1/2 hours a week for the next ten weeks, and hope we'll be able to carry on a conversation with the locals by the time we leave here in April.  Our teacher is very good, professional and easy to work with.

When we're not talking, we've had time to spend with our friends, Miguel, Fanny and their little girls, Angie and Ashley.  Miguel speaks enough English to get along very well in both languages, and Fanny wants to learn English just as we're working on the Spanish.  We spent one full day going with them to the Colonial towns of Concordia and Copala.  Though we'd been to both towns before, it was many years ago, and it's always nice to have someone familiar with the area to show us around and make sure we don't miss something we might otherwise not notice.   Concordia is known for furniture manufacturing and Copala is an old mining town.  Both have lovely old churches that are the center of activity and the preferred mode of travel is by burro through the narrow, twisting cobble stone streets.  A step back in time for those of us who are used to modern day structures and the  noise and congestion of freeways!  After stopping at Daniel's, a wonderful restaurant in Copala, for lunch, Miguel showed us the mining shaft behind the restaurant.  The owner has built a set of lighted stairs down into the mining tunnels that wind around under the town, and guests are welcome to go explore and see how the mining was done clear back to the 16th century in Copala!

On another day, we were guests at Miguel's and Fanny's home for lunch and to meet one of Miguel's brothers and his wife, Luis and Olga.  We had a 'stew' made of pork, hominy and chiles called 'pozole' which is just delicious!  After lunch, we sat around their table talking and learning each other's languages for about three hours.  I learned to say that I have three sons and one daughter, and five grandsons and three granddaughters!  Of course, I didn't learn how to spell it, so I better leave well enough alone!  Other days we have had them over to our 'casa chico' to spend the day and next week, we are all invited to another town close by to visit with another of Miguel's brothers' inlaws on their rancho.  We sure are being made to feel welcome and part of the family here!

We are also learning how much we didn't know about Mazatlan in the past!  For instance, my recommendations for restaurants are only the tip of the proverbial ice berg.  There are so many good places here that you'd never find half a dozen people to agree on what's best.  Nearly every neighborhood has 'the best' tacos around, and that's no lie, either!  Every place you turn, there is the best seafood.  Ditto traditional Mexican dishes.  No, of course we haven't tried them all.  No way to do that in a year's time, let alone a couple of months.  So, when we recommended the best tacos, they were best WE'D had up to that point, not the best we've had now!  Go figure, everyone's an expert here!  By now, though, we can tell you lots of good sources of food besides restaurants, too.  There are three major fresh markets, or mercados, that Ken loves to shop.  Each of the three has 'the best bargain' on one thing or the other.  I have my favorite meat shop in the 'new' market just off the beach by two blocks, and Ken has his own personal camarone (shrimp) lady at the open-air shrimp market on, what else, shrimp street!  All of the fresh veggies and fruits here are enough to make us want to stay forever.  Imagine someone who had to wait for his birthday the beginning of June each year to get his fresh strawberries being able to have red, ripe and juicy ones every day, notwithstanding winter!

OK, that's enough of my chattering.  I'm saving enough room for some of our pictures, so just scroll down to take a look.  The four top ones are New Year's Day along olas altas, the oldest beach in Mazatlan.  Next, we have Playa Bruha, one of the lovely beaches to the north.  And, a picture of Miguel and his family with Ken, one of Lee & Angie, and Ken at Cerritos Point, one of his favorite beaches!